The second-year club had the best record in the league and plays in the West semifinals Tuesday

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Actor Will Ferrell, LAFC designated player Carlos Vela, and John Thorrington LAFC of Operations, pose for a photo with T-Shirt presented to Carlos Vela. LAFC held a press conference at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, Friday, August 11, 2017, to introduce the Mexican star soccer player, Carlos Vela as the first designated player in LAFC history. (Photo by Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star-News/SCNG)

LOS ANGELES >> The grass is dying, the paint is flaking, the kids are being wheeled into surgery for a headphone-ectomy.

Doesn’t the magic slate look good right now? Wouldn’t it be nice to flip the sheet, go back to the empty frame? Life does not have expansion teams. Sports do. And the Los Angeles Football Club, in Year Two, is playing for the MLS Western Conference championship Tuesday night at Banc of Caiifornia Stadium, after it was the league’s runaway leader in the regular season.

Maybe we should quit being surprised.

The Vegas Golden Knights built their house on an empty lot, no teardown or demo required, and got to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first year. The Arizona Diamondbacks won 100 games and the National League West in their second season.

Even the Los Angeles Angels, back when they played in Los Angeles, went 86-76 in Season Two.

Did you hear Kings’ coach Todd McLellan the other night? He seems to know how difficult a fix-up he’s facing. “There are some players who probably don’t belong in the league right now,” he said, after an unsightly loss at Chicago.

He didn’t get to choose them. John Thorrington did.

Thorrington is LAFC’s general manager. He and club ownership recognized the potential magic of the slate. He hired the distinguished Bob Bradley to coach, and he did not have to worry about reworking the clubhouse or fitting a system to the existing players.

“There is no pre-existing culture,” Thorrington said the other day, at club headquarters on the campus of Cal State-L.A.

“By definition, the first group you have is the most influential that will ever come into your building. We saw it as critical to get the right type of people. With us, it’s man first, player second.”

LAFC had a limited expansion draft. It took goaltender Tyler Miller and midfielder Latif Blessing right off the bat, except the 5-foot-5 Blessing wasn’t a midfielder at the time. Bradley & Co. felt he could be more disruptive in the center of things. Again, they could do that, because there was nobody to displace.

LAFC also looked closely at the United Soccer League, one of the next rungs down. The scouts were intrigued by Mark-Anthony Kaye, then playing at Louisville City. Thorrington also had seen Kaye playing for Canadian national teams, and goalkeeper coach Zak Abdel had coached Kaye in Canada.

Kaye had played in the front and back. LAFC turned him into a midfielder, where he has thrived, when healthy.

“Rather than trying to say, ‘You’ll get two phenomenal players per position,’ it was more of, ‘Let’s invest in higher quality for fewer players who have tactical flexibility,” Thorrington said. “As they’re exposed to Bob and his staff, it opens up possibilities. You see it with both Marc and Latif.”

Still, you don’t necessarily score goals on adaptability and personality. The LAFC needed a star and it signed Carlos Vela, who had played at Real Sociedad in Spain and, at the time, was 28 years old.

Vela, Diego Rossi and Brian Rodriguez generally are the front three, and all are “designated players,” which basically means the clubs can exceed their financial bonds to sign them.

Vela had helped Real Sociedad into the Champions League in 2013-14, and, unlike some European names who have used the MLS as their valedictory, was entering his best years. Few realized he would score 34 goals, leading the league, and become the fulcrum of the franchise.

“Outside of (Lionel) Messi and (Cristiano) Ronaldo, and if you take the central strikers out of it, Carlos was the most successful guy in Spain,” Thorrington said. “He got a rap of being inconsistent, but people didn’t realize how good he had been.

“What I loved about our conversations was the ‘why.’ He had many other options. But he saw that he could make the difference for us and would set the trajectory for us. That excited him, and it aligned with what we wanted from our first signature player. I think the misconception comes from his humility, given his talent. He doesn’t want special treatment. That leads to misunderstanding.”

Thorrington was born in South Africa, but grew up in Palos Verdes and played in Europe and with three different MLS teams. He was a teammate of LAFC defender Jordan Harvey. He also got an MBA at Northwestern, which is where he encountered Henry Nguyen, a lead investor in LAFC. Opportunity knocked.

More seasons like this and Thorrington might be invited back, this time to the lectern, not the audience. The class might be Expansion 101, or something about how Boot beats Re-boot.

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